NSC Staffer Fired Over Anti-‘Globalist’ Conspiracy Memo

An official at the National Security Council was reportedly fired last month over a memo he wrote arguing that there exists a conspiratorial, widespread threat using “Maoist tactics” to subvert President Trump. According to The Atlantic, Rich Higgins, an ex-Pentagon official who worked as a director in the NSC’s strategic-planning office, the memo warned against “supposed domestic and international threats to Trump’s presidency, including globalists, bankers, the ‘deep state,’ and Islamists. The memo characterizes the Russia story as a plot to sabotage Trump’s nationalist agenda. It asserts that globalists and Islamists are seeking to destroy America. The memo also includes a set of recommendations, arguing that the problem constitutes a national-security priority.” Higgins’ removal from the post, The Atlantic noted, can be seen as a victory for national-security advisor H.R. McMaster, who has actively fought against the Bannon wing of the Trump administration that tends to engage in conspiracy-minded thinking.